Richard Douglas James Baker
OBE RD (15 June 1925 – 17 November 2018) was an English
broadcaster, best known as a newsreader for
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
from 1954 to 1982, and as a radio presenter of classical music. He was a contemporary of
Kenneth Kendall
Kenneth Kendall (7 August 1924 – 14 December 2012) was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC, where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. He is also remembered as ...
and
Robert Dougall
Robert Dougall, MBE (27 November 1913 – 18 December 1999) was an English broadcaster and ornithologist, mainly known as a newsreader and announcer.
Early life and radio broadcasting
Dougall was born and educated in Croydon, Surrey. He a ...
and was the first reader of the ''BBC Television News'' (in voiceover) in 1954.
Early life
The eldest son of a
plasterer
A plasterer is a tradesman or tradesperson who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been u ...
, Baker was born in
Willesden
Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed ...
,
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire.
The term ''nort ...
, and educated at
Kilburn Grammar School
Kilburn Grammar School was an English grammar school which opened in 1898 in Kilburn, north-west London. The school ceased to exist in 1967.
History
The school's history is detailed in a book by Richard E Brock. It was founded by the Rev. Dr. H ...
and at
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...
.
Baker's undergraduate years were interrupted by war service in the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
He was on a
minesweeper
A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.
History
The earliest known usage of ...
that protected the
Allied Arctic supply convoys to the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
.
He was awarded the
Royal Naval Reserve decoration. In May 2015 he was awarded the
Ushakov Medal
The Medal of Ushakov (russian: Медаль Ушакова) is a state decoration of the Russian Federation that was retained from the awards system of the USSR post 1991.
Award history
The Medal of Ushakov was a Soviet military award created o ...
for his service in the
Arctic convoys of World War II
The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys ...
.
Broadcasting career
After graduating from Cambridge University, Baker briefly worked as an actor and as a teacher. He wrote to the BBC to ask if they were recruiting, and this resulted in his first job for them, presenting classical music on the
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and intellectual f ...
.
He introduced the first BBC television news broadcast on 5 July 1954, although
John Snagge
John Derrick Mordaunt Snagge (8 May 190425 March 1996) was a British newsreader and commentator on BBC Radio.
Life
Born in Chelsea, London, he was educated at Winchester College and Pembroke College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in l ...
read the actual bulletin. A competent pianist,
[ he also became closely associated with classical music broadcasting, and presented many music programmes on both television and radio, including, for many years, the annual live broadcast from the '']Last Night of the Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert H ...
''. He was a regular panellist on the classical music quiz show '' Face the Music''. On radio he presented ''Baker's Dozen'', ''Start the Week
''Start the Week'' is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular ...
'' on Radio 4 from April 1970 until 1987, ''Mozart'', ''These You Have Loved'' (1972–77), and ''Melodies for You
''Melodies for You'' was a long-running BBC radio music programme, broadcast on Sunday mornings until 1992 and Sunday evenings subsequently, which presented works of light popular and classical music.
The show was merged with ''Your Hundred Bes ...
'' for BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
(1986–1995, 1999–2003). He also presented the long-running ''Your Hundred Best Tunes
''Your Hundred Best Tunes'' was a BBC radio music programme, always broadcast on Sunday evenings, which presented popular works which were mostly classical excerpts, choral works, opera and ballads. The hundred tunes which made up the playlist w ...
'' for BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
on Sunday nights, taking over from Alan Keith
Alan Keith, OBE (born Alexander Kossoff; 19 October 1908 – 17 March 2003) was a British actor, disc jockey and radio presenter, noted for being the longest-serving and eldest presenter on British radio by the time of his death aged 94.
Backg ...
, who died in 2003, and retiring in January 2007 when the programme was dropped by the BBC. In 1995, he made his first foray into independent radio with a move to Classic FM, where he presented the Classic Countdown and Evening Concert programmes.
Baker narrated '' Mary, Mungo and Midge'' (1969), a children's cartoon produced for the BBC, and '' Teddy Edward'' (1973), another children's series, as well as Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...
's composition for children ''Peter and the Wolf
''Peter and the Wolf'' ( rus, Петя и Bолк, r="Pétya i volk", p=ˈpʲetʲə i volk, links=no) Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's s ...
''. He made cameo appearances in three episodes (30, 33 and 39) of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...
'' and in the 1977 '' Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show''.
Personal life
Baker married Margaret Martin, at St Mary The Boltons
St Mary The Boltons is an Anglican church in The Boltons, Brompton, London. It is a Grade II listed building.
History
The Boltons, a street in Brompton, was farmland until the middle of the 19th century. As part of westward expansion of Lo ...
in Brompton, London, on 2 June 1961, while both were in their mid-30s. They had known each other from infancy as their mothers were friends. The couple had two sons; Andrew, a sports columnist at ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' and James, a television executive at Red Arrow Studios
ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (officially abbreviated as P7S1, formerly ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) is a German mass media & digital company. It operates in three segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. The company is listed on the Fran ...
.
Baker wrote a biography of Vice-Admiral Sir Gilbert Stephenson, under whom he had served. ''The Terror of Tobermory'' was published by W. H. Allen in 1972.
At the time of his 90th birthday Baker was living with his wife at a retirement village in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
. He died on 17 November 2018, at the John Radcliffe Hospital
The John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe, an 18th-century physici ...
in Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, aged 93. Following his death, fellow BBC broadcast journalist John Simpson tweeted: "Richard Baker, who has just died, was one of the finest newsreaders of modern times: highly intelligent, thoughtful, gentle, yet tough in defence of his principles."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Richard
1925 births
2018 deaths
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
English radio DJs
BBC newsreaders and journalists
BBC Radio 2 presenters
Classical music radio presenters
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Kilburn Grammar School
People from Willesden
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II
Royal Navy officers of World War II